FHSU Left Out of NCAA Tournament Field

Even though they were co-champions of the regular season in the MIAA, the Fort Hays State men’s basketball team was left out of the eight-team Central Regional field of the 64-team NCAA Tournament. The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference received four bids, while the MIAA and Great American Conference received two each.

Fort Hays State finished 20-8 overall, but mysteriously fell from eighth in the region rankings on February 20 to ninth the next week, to out of the top 10 entering the MIAA Tournament. Advancing to the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament was not enough to get the Tigers in this year, even though they reached 20 wins in a season for the seventh time under head coach Mark Johnson, which ties for most in school history with Bill Morse.

Central Missouri, co-champion of the regular season with FHSU, earned the automatic bid from the conference by winning the MIAA Tournament. Northeastern State received the other bid, even though it finished 19-8 overall and tied for third in the MIAA regular season. The Riverhawks lost in the quarterfinals of the MIAA Tournament.

Most baffling is the fact that two at-large bids were handed to a pair of 11-loss teams, Upper Iowa from the NSIC and Arkansas Tech from the Great American Conference. Arkansas Tech finished in a three-way tie for the GAC conference regular season title, but the champions of that conference were 13-7. FHSU and Central Missouri were 13-5 in conference play. Arkansas Tech had three non-conference losses outside its conference tournament, while FHSU had just two. All of Fort Hays State’s losses were to teams over .500, most being well over .500.

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We go to the tournament every year and every year we watch both boys and girls if they make it, get ripped off. The officials are so BAD and you can tell for sure that they dont want FHSU to go any farther in the tournament. One boys game we watched one offical make all the calls while one official didnt blow his whistle once. During the girls game an unjust call was made against FHSU player and the ref sitting and monitor called the ref over to let him know he reviewed it and it was unjust, but nothing changed. Honestly I wish we would go back to the RMAC or form our own division or start firing some refs.

pb

Not only is the determination of the selection committee garbage but it clearly fails to take into account that the MIAA is, year in year out, among the toughest leagues in D2. A great record in the MIAA means a heckuva lot more than does a decent record in the GAC.